Distributed airborne transportation system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide an alternative distributed airborne transportation system. In some embodiments, a method for distributed airborne transportation includes: providing an airborne vehicle with a wing and a wing span, having capacity to carry one or more of passengers or cargo; landing of the airborne vehicle near one or more of passengers or cargo and loading at least one of passengers or cargo; taking-off and determining a flight direction for the airborne vehicle; locating at least one other airborne vehicle, which has substantially the same flight direction; and joining at least one other airborne vehicle in flight formation and forming a fleet, in which airborne vehicles fly with the same speed and direction and in which adjacent airborne vehicles are separated by distance of less than 100 wing spans.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 9,541,924, issued Apr.27, 2017, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to systems,methods and apparatus for airborne transportation, and in particular tothose for enabling massively scalable modular transportation ofpassengers and cargo based on a self-organizing fleet of airbornevehicles.

BACKGROUND

Modern airborne transportation is primarily based on relatively largesize fixed-wing aircraft that can transport relatively large number ofpassengers and amount of cargo between a limited number of airports,which are areas specially created for take-off and landing of regularaircraft. As a result, such a transportation system is limited in itsabilities to remain economical and provide adequate services underincreasing demands for faster, better and more reliable performance.Airports represent one of the most apparent bottlenecks in this system.They are expensive to operate for owners and inconvenient to use forcustomers. Existing airports are being utilized at close to capacity andadditional ones are not built fast enough.

Existing airborne transportation systems are in many ways similar toground-based centralized systems for public and mass transportation,well-known examples of which are ones based on railroad and highway bustransport. Such systems lack the flexibility and convenience of adistributed transportation system.

Therefore, the inventors have provided an improved airbornetransportation system, which provides one or more benefits ofdistributed transportation.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide an alternative distributedairborne transportation system. In some embodiments, a method fordistributed airborne transportation includes: providing an airbornevehicle with a wing and a wing span, having capacity to carry one ormore of passengers or cargo; landing of the airborne vehicle near one ormore of passengers or cargo and loading at least one of passengers orcargo; taking-off and determining a flight direction for the airbornevehicle; locating at least one other airborne vehicle, which hassubstantially the same flight direction; and joining at least one otherairborne vehicle in flight formation and forming a fleet, in whichairborne vehicles fly with the same speed and direction and in whichadjacent airborne vehicles are separated by distance of less than 100wing spans.

In some embodiments, a method for distributed airborne transportationwithin an area on the ground includes: providing an airborne vehiclewith a wing and a wing span, having capacity to carry at least one ofpassengers or cargo; determining and defining possible non-intersectingflight routes in the area; landing of the airborne vehicle and loadingat least one of passengers or cargo; taking-off and selecting anappropriate flight route for the airborne vehicle; and merging into theflight route.

In some embodiments, a distributed airborne transportation system,includes: a plurality of airborne vehicles, each having a wing andvertical take-off and landing capabilities; an airborne fleet comprisingat least two of the plurality of airborne vehicles flown in flightformation, where the separation between the airborne vehicles within thefleet is less than the average wingspan of the plurality of airbornevehicles in the airborne fleet; and a flight control center withestablished wireless communication links between the flight controlcenter and the plurality of airborne vehicles.

Other and further embodiments of the present invention are describedbelow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention, briefly summarized above anddiscussed in greater detail below, can be understood by reference to theillustrative embodiments of the invention depicted in the appendeddrawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawingsillustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are thereforenot to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admitto other equally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 shows an airborne system for distributed transportation ofpassengers and cargo in accordance with at least some embodiments of thepresent invention.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary fixed-wing aircraft with vertical take-off andlanding (VTOL) capabilities in accordance with at least some embodimentsof the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary fixed-wing aircraft with vertical take-off andlanding (VTOL) capabilities having shuttered fan openings in a VTOLvehicle configuration in accordance with at least some embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a VTOL design in which the propulsion is provided by twoducted fans in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary method for providing distributed airbornetransportation services in accordance with at least some embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 6 shows schematically an example of a loading method in accordancewith at least some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows schematically an example of a travel method in accordancewith at least some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows schematically an example of a loading method in accordancewith at least some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows examples of several fleet configurations in accordance withat least some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows schematically an example of a portion of a travel methodin accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 11 shows a distributed transportation system in accordance with atleast some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows a distributed transportation system in accordance with atleast some embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows a top view of a distributed transportation system inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. The figures are not drawn to scale and may be simplifiedfor clarity. It is contemplated that elements and features of oneembodiment may be beneficially incorporated in other embodiments withoutfurther recitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of exemplaryembodiments or other examples described herein. However, it will beunderstood that these embodiments and examples may be practiced withoutthe specific details. In other instances, well-known methods,procedures, components, and/or circuits have not been described indetail, so as not to obscure the following description. Further, theembodiments disclosed are for exemplary purposes only and otherembodiments may be employed in lieu of, or in combination with, theembodiments disclosed.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an alternative distributedairborne transportation system, which can operate without airports. Thisdistributed airborne transportation system is based on a modulardistributed transport approach, which uses relatively small-scaleairborne vehicles capable of loading and unloading passengers and cargoat the point of a service request (a la taxi service) and of long-rangetravel using flight formation and other methods. Such a distributedairborne transportation system can offer advantages such as conveniencefor customers and scalability (i.e., the ability to grow in size andcapacity). At the same time, it may be more advantageous thanground-based distributed systems, since it does not require the creationand maintenance of roadways on the ground. Non-limiting examples includeproviding transport systems and methods based on fixed-wing unmannedairborne vehicles with vertical take-off and landing capabilities.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, an airbornesystem is provided for distributed transportation of passengers andcargo as shown in FIG. 1. In a system 100 an airborne vehicle (vehicle110) may be provided for a customer 120 at an arbitrary location 125.Vehicle 110 has a range of capabilities including, but not limited to:111—landing at a site near customer location, 112—boarding a customerand taking off, and 113—ascending and reaching cruising speed andaltitude. At a cruising altitude, vehicle 110 may join a fleet 130comprised of similar airborne vehicles to produce a flight formation.Fleet 130 may include vehicles traveling to different destinations, butalong the same route in the same general direction.

Flight formation as used herein, means an arrangement of airbornevehicles flying in sufficiently close proximity to each other to impactthe flight characteristics of the fleet as a whole. Fleets in flightformation may include two or more airborne vehicles. Flight formationenables more energy efficient flight, while giving the flexibility ofentering or leaving the fleet at any time. For example, flight in a Vformation can greatly enhance the overall aerodynamic efficiency of thefleet by reducing the drag and thereby increasing the flight range.

Airborne vehicles that may be used in system 100 include helicopters,fixed-wing planes, VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft,rotorcraft, lighter-than-air airships, hybrid aircraft and others. Someof the methods described in this invention may also be applicable to awider variety of aircraft options, including regular fixed-wingairplanes. In the latter case, however, the loading and unloading ofcargo and passenger may be restricted to special locations and takeplace at small airports and airfields.

Small-scale aircraft suitable for these methods may utilize differentflight control options, such as manual piloting, remote piloting, andautomatic piloting. In the case of manual piloting, an on-board pilot isin full control of an aircraft and its maneuvers. In remote piloting, anaircraft is piloted by a person that is not on board of an aircraft viaa radio communication link. In automatic piloting, an on-board computersystem provides full flight control capabilities, including flightplanning, path monitoring, maneuvering, transitioning between differentaircraft configurations and so on. Finally, in a hybrid flight controloption two or more of these options may be available, for example, sothat the same aircraft may be piloted manually, remotely, orautomatically at different times. The automatic piloting option isparticularly attractive for flight formations, where precise and quickmaneuvering is essential.

Cargo sections in these aircraft may take different forms depending onwhether passenger transport is involved. Passengers may also be labeledas “Human Cargo” (HC) for generalization purposes. HC transport mayoccur via specialized containers or HC pods. Such pods may loaded andunloaded onto airborne vehicles in a similar way to regular cargocontainers.

In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, one of thepreferred vehicles for this system is a fixed-wing aircraft withvertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities. It combines theadvantages of being able to take-off and land outside of airports andfly at relatively high cruising speeds. FIG. 2 shows, as an example ofsuch an aircraft, a VTOL plane 200. This plane has tailless design usinga fuselage with sufficient room to accommodate one or more passengers.The wing has built-in fans for providing a vertical lifting force fortake-off and landing. The wing may also fold its tips for minimizing thesize of the landing site. After a take-off, another motor with apropeller may provide propulsion to achieve sufficient speed, at whichthe wing has enough lift and the fans can be turned off. At this point,the fan openings may be shuttered as shown in FIG. 3 in a VTOL vehicleconfiguration 300.

Of course many other VTOL vehicles designs may be possible within thescope of this invention. For example, FIG. 4 shows a VTOL design 400 inwhich the propulsion is provided by two ducted fans. Instead of fans,gimbaled motors with propellers can be used for both vertical andlateral propulsion. A preferred propulsion mechanism may include anelectric motor with a propeller. However, one may use an electricallypowered plasma jet engine as an alternative. As a result, cruisingspeeds, which may be achieved either by individual vehicles or within afleet, may reach supersonic speeds.

Also, the wing shape may take different forms. In addition, a VTOLdesign with a tail may be used as an alternative. Folding-wing and/orfolding-tail designs are particularly attractive, because it allows VTOLvehicles to land in tighter areas on the ground. A foldable wing isshown as an example in FIG. 2. Wings or some of their parts may berotating to enable VTOL capabilities, in which for example a motorattached to the wing may be rotated by at least 90 degrees.Alternatively, other sections of the airframe may be rotating, e.g., thefuselage or some of its sections.

Various power systems and their combinations may be used for poweringsuch vehicles, including fossil fuels, electric batteries, fuel cells,solar power, and other renewable power sources. A particularlyattractive solution for this application comprises an electricallypowered VTOL plane with additional solar photovoltaic (PV) power system,because of its efficiency and low noise. In addition, kinetic energyconversion systems may also be used as alternative energy sources,particularly in emergency situations. A preferred power system may haveseveral redundant power sources, such as electrical batteries, fuelcells, and solar cells.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5shows an exemplary method 500 for providing distributed airbornetransportation services. The method 500 includes the following: (1)perform vertical landing, (2) pick up passengers and/or cargo, (3)perform vertical take-off, (4) transform to fixed-wing position, (5)increase altitude and lay out course, (6) locate suitable fleet, (7)join a fleet in flight formation, (8) travel to destination, (9)disengage from the fleet, (10) descend to landing site, (11) performvertical landing, and (12) unload passengers or cargo. Some of these,such as (5) increasing altitude and laying the course for the airbornevehicle, may be optional in various embodiments. Alternatively,additional actions may be added, such as loading and unloading ofadditional passengers and/or cargo.

The above method and embodiments similar to this method, in general, maybe subdivided into three method categories: (1) loading methods, (2)travel methods and (3) unloading methods. Loading and unloading methodsmay differ depending on whether the service is intended for passengers,cargo, or combinations thereof. For example, additional equipment andautomated loading procedures may be implemented for loading andunloading cargo. Also, cargo may be loaded and unloaded even without theVTOL transport vehicle actually touching the ground, e.g., usingair-to-air transfer between airborne vehicles or via the use of cablesand parachutes.

In accordance with some aspects of the present invention, FIG. 6 showsschematically an example of a loading method 600, which may be used, forexample, in combination with the method 500 disclosed above. In someembodiments, the method 600 includes: performing a vertical landing of avehicle 615 (shown by 610), loading a passenger 616 (shown by 620), andperforming a vertical take-off by vehicle 615 with passenger 616 onboard (shown by 630). Furthermore, the method 600 may further include avertical ascent, in which the speed of the vehicle is substantiallyvertical and the lateral speed component is smaller than the verticalspeed component. Of course, the same method may be applied to loading ofmultiple passengers at the same location and/or loading of cargo.Alternatively, the process described by method 600 may be repeated atdifferent sites and locations, so that different passengers and cargo ortypes of cargo may be loaded onto the same vehicle 615 (with or withoutcomplete or partial unloading of any existing passengers or cargo).

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, FIG. 7 showsschematically an example of a travel method 700, which may be used, forexample, in combination with the method 500 disclosed above. In someembodiments, the method 700 includes: increasing altitude of vehicle 715using its VTOL capabilities (shown by 710), transforming vehicle 715 toa fixed-wing position and increasing its lateral velocity (shown by720), locating a suitable fleet of airborne vehicles (fleet 735) andjoining fleet 735 in flight formation (shown by 730), travelling towardsa destination with fleet 735 (shown by 740), disengaging from fleet 735(shown by 750), descending towards a landing site and transitioning to avertical landing position (shown by 760), and reducing the altitude ofvehicle 715 using its VTOL capabilities (shown by 770). Instead ofjoining an existing fleet, vehicle 715 may also join another airbornevehicle (similar or dissimilar) and thereby forming a two-vehicle fleet.

Of course, some of the above may be optional and omitted, oralternatively additional actions may be introduced. For example, vehicle715 may communicate with fleet 735 before and/or after joining thefleet. Also, the vehicle 715 may travel for substantial distanceswithout an accompanying fleet. Furthermore, some actions may berepeated. For example, vehicle 1010 may switch between different fleets1020 and 1030, as shown by 1000 in FIG. 10, in which a part of itscourse may be travelled with one suitable fleet (e.g., 1020) and anotherpart of the course may travelled with a different, preferably moresuitable, fleet (e.g., 1030). The different fleet may be more suitableby providing one or more of a different flight path, a differentdestination, a more efficient flight formation, or the like.Alternatively or in combination, the method 700 may include changing theposition of vehicle 715 within fleet 735. In some embodiments, themethod 700 may include refueling and recharging of an airborne vehicleby another airborne vehicle (optionally within the same fleet), in whichfuel and/or electrical energy respectively are exchanged between the twovehicles with assistance of a transfer line or a cable. Any travelmethod may also include optional actions related to emergencysituations, in which a vehicle performs one or more actions necessaryfor communicating with a fleet and/or flight control authorities, quickdisengagement from a fleet, rapid decent, or the like.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, FIG. 8shows schematically an example of an unloading method 800, which may beused, for example, in combination with the method 500 disclosed above.In some embodiments, the method 800 includes: performing a verticallanding of a vehicle 815 (as shown by 810), unloading a passenger 816(as shown by 820), and performing a vertical take-off by vehicle 815 (asshown by 830). Furthermore, the method 800 may include a verticaldescent before landing, in which the speed of the vehicle issubstantially vertical. Of course, the same method may be applied tounloading of multiple passengers at the same location and/or unloadingof cargo. Alternatively, the process described by method 800 may berepeated at different sites and locations, so that different passengersand cargo or types of cargo may be unloaded onto the same vehicle 815.Furthermore, both loading and unloading methods include landing onsuitable surfaces such as ground surfaces, roof surfaces (especiallyflat roofs), flight decks of large building and vehicles, floating deckson water surfaces, water surfaces (with appropriate landing gear), roadsurfaces, off-road surfaces, and so on.

In accordance with embodiments of this invention, loading, unloading,and travel methods described above may be modified, shortened, expanded,and combined with each other to produce different sequences ofprocedures for airborne transportation services. For example, loadingmethods may be combined with unloading methods, so that the sameairborne vehicle may be used for loading and unloading passengers/cargoat the same location at the same time. In another example, the sameairborne vehicle may be used for loading and/or unloadingpassengers/cargo at the same location at the same time while one or morepassengers and/or cargo remains on the plane to continue to a subsequentdestination.

In accordance with another embodiment of this invention, different fleetconfigurations may be used in the travel methods described above. FIG. 9shows examples of several fleet configurations 910-950, which differfrom each other in size, shape, and number of members. At least one ofthe driving factors for a fleet formation is the optimization of energyconsumption by each vehicle within the fleet. By flying next to eachother, vehicles in a fleet as whole reduce the power necessary for theirpropulsion and level flight. Generally, the power reduction is larger ina larger fleet. Thus, the fleet is able to perform level flight on netpropulsion power that is less than sum of propulsion powers of all itsairborne vehicles flown separately. The inter-vehicle separation withinthe fleet should be less than 100 wing spans of typical member vehicleand generally may vary from tens to a fraction of the characteristicwing-span of its members. In order to minimize the size of the fleet andmaximize its efficiency, the separation between neighboring airbornevehicles may be preferable to be less than 10 wing spans. It is alsopreferable that lateral separation (along the wing span) betweenairborne vehicles is substantially smaller than the longitudinalseparation (along the flight path). The altitude of the airbornevehicles in flight formation may be substantially the same. Thedifference in altitude may be governed by the requirement to retain theaerodynamic drag reduction in flight formation and typically is afraction of the wing span of the airborne vehicle.

As a result, fleets may form complex two-dimensional andthree-dimensional patterns. Aircraft within a single fleet may changetheir positions with respect to each other, in order to optimize theirpower consumption, change fleet configuration and respond toenvironmental changes. Due to this complexity, autonomously pilotedvehicles (APV) may be better at formation flying in comparison tomanually piloted aircraft. Auto-piloting software on board of APVs maybe further specialized for formation flying. Additional APV capabilitiesthat simplify formation flying may include direct communication channelsbetween different APVs within a fleet, local area networkingcapabilities for data exchange within a fleet (e.g. ad hoc networking),sensors and beacons for automatic collision avoidance, etc.

The fleets described above may have at least two ways to organizethemselves into a stable formation. One way is via a centralized controlfrom a single command source following procedures and patternsformulated in advance. The other way is via a distributed (ad hoc)control mechanism, in which each airborne vehicle determines itsposition within its fleet autonomously, and with the assistance fromother vehicles from the same fleet only if necessary. The latterapproach of a self-organizing airborne fleet is particularly attractiveand should be a preferred way, since it is faster, safer, moreeconomical, responsive, adaptive, and scalable

In accordance with another embodiment of this invention, FIG. 11 shows adistributed transportation system 1100, which includes a control center1110, individual airborne vehicles 1120, and fleet of airborne vehicles1130. The control center and each vehicle are equipped with means forwireless communications (e.g., 1111 in FIG. 11), such as RF antennas,transmitters, and receivers. Alternatively, this means may include freespace optical communications equipment. As a result, the system 1100 isconfigured to have bi-directional wireless links between its components(i.e., ground based stations and airborne assets) for exchange of flightcontrol signals, telemetry data, navigational signaling, and so on. Forexample, FIG. 11 shows wireless links 1125 between the control center1110 and the individual airborne vehicles 1120 and wireless links 1135between the control center 1110 and the fleet of airborne vehicles 1130,as well as direct wireless links 1126 between individual airbornevehicles 1120. In addition, system 1100 is provided with communicationlinks to customers and/or their premises 1140, including wireless links1145 and wired links 1146, for the purposes of receiving customerorders, tracking their location, updating their status, exchangingrelevant information and so on. Furthermore, a direct communication link1155 between an airborne vehicle 1120 and customers/premises can beestablished for faster and more accurate exchange of information. Thus,as shown in FIG. 11, one or more communication links can be establishedwith an airborne vehicle to provide one or more of customer information,navigational data, or flight data from other airborne vehicles to theairborne vehicle.

Furthermore, the system 1100 may be expanded to include other elements.For example, it may comprise multiple fleets of various sizes that areable to dynamically vary in size and complexity. It may includeadditional ground-based facilities, such as additional control centers,maintenance centers, heliports, communication towers and so on. It mayinclude parking areas for vehicles on stand-by, waiting for passengers.It may also include sea-based facilities, such as aircraft carriers,sea-based control centers (for example, located on boats and seavessels), and aircraft suitable for landing on water. Furthermore, itmay include space-based facilities, such as satellites for establishingadditional communication links between control centers, airbornevehicles and customers.

In accordance with another embodiment of this invention, FIG. 12 shows adistributed transportation system 1200, in which flight formation isused for organizing airborne transportation in the urban area. In thiscase an area on the ground may be densely populated with people andbuildings 1210. Such an area may be heavily trafficked both on theground and in the air. Formation flying may a useful tool under suchconditions for organizing flight patterns of and ensuring safety ofmultiple small-scale aircraft of the type described in the above, evenfor short range travels within the same metropolitan area. In this case,minimizing fleet power consumption is unimportant or less important, anddifferent flight formations are therefore possible. For example, FIG. 12shows two fleets 1220 and 1230, each comprised of multiple airbornevehicle 1225 and 1235 in a straight line. These fleets are able to flyin formation in different directions without collision and interferencefrom each other.

Similarly, FIG. 13 shows a top view of a distributed transportationsystem 1300 in an urban area populated with buildings 1310. The system1300 includes two fleets 1320 and 1330, each comprised of multipleaircraft 1325 and 1335 in flight formation. The aircraft in the sameformation maintain the same speed, heading, altitude and separationbetween neighboring aircraft. Flight routes for such fleets may bepredefined in advance and programmed in with GPS (Global PositioningSystem) markers in the flight control software. Therefore, the twofleets at different altitudes may cross each other paths withoutinterference as illustrated in FIG. 13. Typical separation betweendifferent aircraft in urban flight formation may range from 1 to 10 wingspans of a single airborne vehicle, but in general cases may exceed thisrange. Urban areas also provide additional options for take-off andlanding, such as roofs of the buildings. VTOL vehicles may use flatroofs as convenient and safer alternative for loading and unloading ofpassengers and cargo.

Although various methods and apparatus are described above in particularexemplary embodiments, variations and combinations of the methods andapparatus are contemplated. For example the disclosed methods may beperformed in connection with any of the disclosed systems and airbornevehicles, as well as with other alternative systems and vehicles. Inaddition, various modifications of the methods, such as omittingoptional processes or adding additional processes may be performed.

For example, in some embodiments, a method for distributed airbornetransportation may include providing an airborne vehicle with a wing anda wing span, having capacity to carry one or more of passengers or cargo(e.g., any of the airborne vehicles disclosed above). The airbornevehicle may be landed near one or more of passengers or cargo and the atleast one of passengers or cargo loaded into the airborne vehicle. Next,the airborne vehicle takes-off and a flight direction for the airbornevehicle is determined. At least one other airborne vehicle havingsubstantially the same flight direction is located. The airborne vehiclethen joins at least one other airborne vehicle in flight formation toform a fleet, in which airborne vehicles fly with the same speed anddirection and in which adjacent airborne vehicles are separated bydistance of less than 100 wing spans.

In another example, a method for distributed airborne transportationwithin an area on the ground may be provided by providing an airbornevehicle with a wing and a wing span, having capacity to carry at leastone of passengers or cargo (e.g., any of the airborne vehicles disclosedabove). Non-intersecting flight routes in the area are determined anddefined. The airborne vehicle is landed and at least one of passengersor cargo is loaded into the airborne vehicle. The airborne vehicle thentakes-off and an appropriate flight route for the airborne vehicle isselected. The airborne vehicle then merges into the flight route.

In another example, a distributed airborne transportation systemincludes a plurality of airborne vehicles, each having a wing andvertical take-off and landing capabilities (e.g., any of the airbornevehicles disclosed above). An airborne fleet is defined comprising atleast two of the plurality of airborne vehicles flown in flightformation (e.g., as described in any of the embodiments disclosedherein). The separation between the airborne vehicles within the fleetis less than the average wingspan of the plurality of airborne vehiclesin the airborne fleet. A flight control center (e.g., 1110) is providedwith established wireless communication links between the flight controlcenter and the plurality of airborne vehicles.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention,other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised withoutdeparting from the basic scope thereof.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A distributed airborne transportationsystem, comprising: a plurality of airborne vehicles, each having a wingand vertical take-off and landing capabilities; and an airborne fleetcomprising at least two of the plurality of airborne vehicles flown inflight formation, wherein the airborne vehicles fly at the same speedand direction and are separated by a distance of less than 100 wingspans and wherein lateral separation between airborne vehicles of theplurality of airborne vehicles is smaller than longitudinal separationbetween airborne vehicles.
 2. The system of claim 1, further comprisinga flight control center with established wireless communication linksbetween the flight control center and the plurality of airbornevehicles.
 3. The system of claim 2, further comprising one or more ofcommunication links between the airborne vehicles, communication linksbetween the flight control center and customers, or communication linksbetween the airborne vehicles and customers.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein at least one of the plurality of airborne vehicles is anautonomously piloted vehicle.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein at leastone of the plurality of airborne vehicles comprises a flight controlsystem and sensors for enabling formation flight capabilities.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of airbornevehicles comprises a compartment for one or more of passengers andcargo.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of airbornevehicles comprises free space optical communications equipment.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of airbornevehicles comprises an electric motor.
 9. The system of claim 1, whereinat least one of the plurality of airborne vehicles comprises a solarcell.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the pluralityof airborne vehicles comprises a foldable wing.
 11. The system of claim1, wherein at least one of the plurality of airborne vehicles comprisesa wing with embedded propellers providing propulsion in the verticaldirection.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of theplurality of airborne vehicles comprises a propulsion system providingpropulsion in the horizontal direction.
 13. The system of claim 1,wherein the plurality of airborne vehicles fly at the same altitude. 14.The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of airborne vehicles fly atdifferent altitudes, wherein the difference in altitude is less than onewing span.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of airbornevehicles fly in formation with wingtip separation of less than 10 wingspans.
 16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a predefined flightroute with Global Positioning System (GPS) markers programmed withinflight control software of the plurality of airborne vehicles.
 17. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of predefined flightroutes with Global Positioning System (GPS) markers programmed withinflight control software of the plurality of airborne vehicles.
 18. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a take-off and landing zone on atleast one of the ground, buildings, sea vessels, and platforms.